The military authorization bill congressional Republicans proposed made several changes that Progressives could not support. It permitted the testing of nuclear weapons for use in "conventional" war; it exempted military training exercises from certain environmental regulations; and it moved the country closer to a missile defense system. Progressives were against all three. They opposed nuclear combat of any kind, they saw no reason why national security and environmental protection needed to be conflicting goals, and felt a missile defense system was dangerous, expensive, and unworkable. Joining them in opposition was Taylor (D-MS), who opposed the bill because he was not allowed to propose an amendment to stop the next round of military base closings. To gum up the works, Taylor moved to rise from the Committee of the Whole-an entirely procedural motion that required the House to spend time casting a vote. Progressives supported the motion because they favored stalling the forward march of the bill. The motion failed, 58-325, but victory was not the object: the object was to bring the House to a standstill in the hope that the Republican majority would be forced to change the bill, or at least to allow Progressives to propose amendments to it. This was only one of many attempts that together took debate into the small hours of the morning.